Meaning-making

If information design is about meaning-making (see quote below) then if an audience participates in the meaning-making process does it follow that the information will be more successful?

Ways of participating:

Interviews (from which a design strategy is devised)

User testing (testing of the design within the target audience)

Participatory design (engaging the audience in the creation of the document).

This is not any sort of revelation but is a fairly basic description of user-centered design. Would an investigation into documents created in this participatory way reveal anything interesting? Have they been tested for success? Can any conclusions be reached if not?

I am struggling with understanding to what level I have to create original content, as in, can my dissertation just be a collection of other people’s research or should I create my own studies? How the hell would I go about this if so?

Brings me back to the question: what are the gaps in the research? Where can I situated my dissertation so that it provides something worthwhile to the area? Should I be looking to write a dissertation about an area I want to work in after my studies?

My idea that I had during the DD4D conference would probably yield more original thought as I cannot find any material (as yet) on it. I was looking at how captions can aid literacy. A fairly broad theme that could encompass film, TV, print, and online communications. What is a caption and how is it used to aid understanding? How do captions aid meaning-making of texts? Where should they be placed and how should they be designed to maximise understanding without adding confusion to the document?